Showing posts with label go sung hee. Show all posts
Showing posts with label go sung hee. Show all posts

13 October 2015

My Beautiful Bride Review

Title: My Beautiful Bride
AKA: Areumdawoon Naeui Shinboo
Genre: Thriller, Romance, Melodrama
Episodes: 16
Broadcast Period: Jun-2015 to Aug-2015
Cast: Kim Moo Yul, Lee Shi Young, Go Sung Hee, Ryu Seung Soo, Park Hae Joon, Son Jong Hak, Lee Jae Yung

The storyline is about Kim Do Hyung (Kim Moo Yul) whose fiance, Yoon Joo Young (Ko Sung Hee), vanished from the surface of the earth and he found himself in an everlasting journey between the past and the present in order to find her. There’s a violence and power hierarchy when it comes to the world of the underground. The first step are the loan sharks and if they can’t get the amount of money the debtor owes them the Shadows take charge of the overall situation. Everything started three years ago when the leader of Shadows, Song Hak Soo (Lee Jae Yong), was caught by the police force after a massive operation under the command of Cha Yoon Mi (Lee Si Young) and Park Hyung Sik (Park Hae Joon). While searching for his fiancee, Kim Do Hyung quickly finds himself against the Shadows.

OCN indeed! Cruel City style indeed. Bloody, intense, heavy, noir till the end. It's exactly what I adore and love. I decided to watch it impulsively and just fell in love with it. It gives you this happiness and a thought that I did well watching it.  Oh boy what a surprise it was, reading that it was the same director as the one behind Cruel City that directed this drama. It made me draw parallels between those two. The dark world there is deep in society, a man fighting for what he believes and a woman that is desperately entangled in that world. Damn was I impressed and freaking hyperventilating half the time? YES, because of all the fighting and racing. I didn’t know how cool a man in a suit riding a mountain bike after a car before I watched Kim Moo Yul in action. At first I was not sure why they picked this actor, I mean, I don’t know him (and that’s very rare!!! Unless he was a rookie/newbie), when I looked him up, he had a lot of work and apparently a well-known person (shock). Although he was kind of a stranger for me at first, I slowly fell for his acting! He is not that handsome when you see him at first, but he becomes more and more charming and real throughout the drama. The girl and the rest of the cast were amazingly good too, I don’t think there were one single person that didn’t give it their all because you could even feel threatened by the gangsters behind, so definitely thumbs up to them. One thing that bothered me was how they tried to prolong the drama, before I started I really wondered how they were going to fill up 16 episodes, with him trying to rescue the girl. And as expected it did feel stretched out in the end, but somehow you kinda overlook it because of all the action. All in all, great OCN.

☆☆☆☆½ / 4½ out of 5 stars

♥♥♥♥½ / 4½ out of 5 hearts

Bunjis Verdict
Hmm, OCN keeps disappointing me. This is yet another one that I could have avoided watching.
As far as police and thriller dramas go, this one had a good starting plot, and then suddenly ended becoming a mafia/gangster/wanna-be-underground’ish war. It started very intriguing where any person watching would become very confused and even doubt your own eyes and yourself. I thought it was well-thought, until episode 4 (or somewhere after that). It just goes downhill, and ends with something as ridiculous as all-on war between gang mobsters. I know it was a sub-plot to begin with, but it ended by becoming the main plot? Also, I understand if you must do that, but it just feels like a desperate attempt to make it scary.
BUT! Besides that, I gotta say the acting was on point, so was the dialogue. So, if you like mobster movies, and like thrillers, this is a definite pick. Plus, it has a bit of mystery which makes it watchable.
To sum up: an interesting and intense police action drama, with a “bit” of gangster in it.

☆☆☆☆ / 4 out of 5 stars

♥♥♥½ / 3½ out of 5 hearts

28 November 2014

Night Watchman’s Journal Review

Title: Night Watchman’s Journal
AKA: The Night Watchman / Records of a Night Watchman / Diary of a Night Watchman
Genre: Period, Romance, Fantasy, Action
Episodes: 24
Broadcast period: 2014-Aug to 2014-Oct
Cast: Jung Il Woo, Go Sung Hee, Jung Yoon Ho (U-Know) and Seo Ye Ji.

In a world where ghosts and dark magic are present, the ones that protect the country are the ones that hide in the shadows: The Night Watchmen.
Lee Rin (Jung Il Woo) is a prince who lost his throne at the age of 10, when one tragic night he loses both his parents. Ever since that night he has been able to see ghosts, but due to the outcast treatment from his older brother (now the king) Rin pretends not to see them, even if they talk to him. In order not to be ‘a burden’ to his king brother, Rin lives life as a playboy and pretends not to have a care in the world. But this all changes when he one day he is given the task to find the kings new shaman. This is where he meets Do Ha (Go Sung Hee) who is looking for her sister who had gone missing 12 years ago, and a mysterious man Sadam (Kim Sung Oh). After seeing the ghost of the woman who had taken care of him when he was the crown prince, Rin goes to the castle, and finds a book – The Night Watchman’s Journal.
The king being jealous of his younger brother makes his most loyal servant and best swordsman Kang Moo Suk (Jung Yoon Ho) tale and spy on Rin, however as fate has it the two and Do Ha become involved in not only the horrible politics of the human world,  but also the fights of the spirit world…

Okay, so the review is written so that I won’t spoil anything, but I ended up having it being kind of lame. The beginning is scary as I am not used to the entire ‘Dark Magic’ world. It’s a drama about curses, possessions and evil spirits, and to be honest, it freaked me out a lot. They can see ghosts, so I was expecting a bit of’ Arang and the Magistrate’, but comparing those two is like comparing Pororo and Hunger Games. Not that this drama is barbaric, it just brought tragic to an entire new level. Well the beginning of it. After the typical backstory, the rest is kind of a fight against evil, and the end cuts everything a bit lamely.
The cast was okay, however I was disappointed. They kind of were below average, and the female actresses were just bad, though the supporting actress freaked me out a bit. I am a Jung Il Woo fan, and I see why he is the prince character, however the screenplay and dialogues were so bad that I didn’t like most of it. The chemistry between the main couple was forced, and the bromance was overrated, like there were scenes where they were supposed to have ‘serious/deep’ conversations, but the dialogues were just written badly so it all became shallow. I was quite disappointed.
Now you wonder why the rating is so high. To be honest, when a period drama of 24 episodes is able to keep my interest for all episodes that is really an achievement. I think the theme was what made me addicted – even made me dream about it.  So I think that 4 stars, is very decent to give.
To sum up: a drama with thrill and somewhat acting.

☆☆☆☆ / 4 out of 5 stars

♥♥♥½ / 3½ out of 5 hearts